This appears to be a pro-survival adaptation, lowering metabolic
processes to deal with famines and other problems of food availability, at
the expense of some enzymatic efficiency. Under normal circumstances,
the body resumes normal functioning when food supply is restored and/or
stress removed.

The disadvantage, is that not all enzymatic pathways operate at
optimal rates during this temporary low nutrition period.

In a portion of the population, once the body has entered this
"conservation state", it may stay there for years. If the state persists
too long, chronic fatigue, allergy and immunological problems, and other
"poorly defined" health complaints may become common. This state may be
reset with proper therapy, as noted in the book and outlined below.

(The problems with electronic thermometers involve the manner in which
they sample the temperature. They can produce readings that are nearly
half a degree low OR high due to sampling errors. A mercury thermometer
averages the temperature. A digital thermometer samples the temperature
at specific intervals. If one interval corresponds to the pulse of hot
blood from the core of the body, the reading wil be high. If all the
intervals occur shortly before those pulses, the readings will be low.
The ones which beep, do so when some small number of readings have shown
the same temperature. See also Observations in the coldbody.html page.)
Note that Wilson;s syndrome is a controversial diagnosis, and not all
endocrinologists will agree with the methods used. Also, not all thyroid
supplements are alike. Some can aggravate Wilson's Syndrome.